Take a piece of any copolymer nylon  tippet material in say, 5X, and hold it at a short distance between your hands – about a hand-span or so. Now, stretch gradually and break, noting how much pull is required. 

Then, repeat – only this time, hold your hands together, and jerk the material taut. If you start with just a slight jerk and gradually increase the tension through a series of jerks, you’ll find that it takes far more pressure under a steady prolonged pull to break the material than when jerking it taut, and you’ll also note that it takes practically nothing to break it via the jerk or sharp pull. 

(Just for grins, try the same thing with a single overhand or “wind knot” in the material, and also with a triple surgeon’s knot and a five-turn blood knot.)

This little experiment will tell you the difference between pull strength and shock strength. Think about this phenomena when striking fish. Same physical principle applies when towing one vehicle with another, and pulling the chain or tow strap snug before gradually accelerating. Go from slack to 30mph  before the strap tightens and something breaks. (Do not try this unless you’re up for a whiplash injury, bent frame, etc. Take my word for it.) Momentum wins, sometimes to our disadvantage.

Now, try the same experiment, only this time, do it with a yard of material. You’ll find the pull strength increases, and the shock strength increases dramatically. 

Why? The material has more room to stretch, or, more accurately, the stress of the shock is distributed over a greater surface area. You can do these same experiments with machines, as suggested in another post, and corroborate the measured evidence via mathematical formulae (start by thinking about the surface area of 8″ of 5X as opposed to 32″). The physical principles remain the same: same stress, distributed over a greater area, results in greater strength.

That’s one reason why I fish long tippets, starting with about an arm’s length pull from a tippet spool held near the center of my body, or about 36″ – which shortens to about 30″ or 32″ when knotted at each end. I don’t measure, I just guess. After all, I’m just fishing and having fun.

When that tippet gets down to about 20″ or so, perhaps longer or shorter in various angling situations, I re-tip. Two short strands of the same material begin and end their applied strength at the joining knot. Two joined 12″ strands of 5X have little more shock strength of one 12″ piece of 5X. Give me one continuous 24″ or 36″ strand instead – and when I go finer than 5X, I go longer as well. 

Most tapered leaders arrive in the package with a tippet section that is too short. Trout Hunter (pictured) is an exception and is my leader of choice. Rene Harrop designed them and he knows how to fish…

I may start with a fresh Trout Hunter but after the second fly change, I’ll cut off all but about a hand-span of the tippet and replace with a fresh strand as described above – about an arm’s length pull. If I’m stuck fishing another brand of leader with a too-short tippet I’ll do this first.

The tippet knot then becomes my index for tippet length, and I have room to re-tip a couple of times in the same size or one size smaller. As that tag-end of built-in tippet is consumed, I can add short (about a hand span) patches of heavier material to repair the tapered leader, adding to its life. Keep stepping down in diameter from one strand to the next.

Fishing with a too-short tippet is a waste of time. It costs drift, and takes, and can ruin my chance to strike an 18″ rainbow pouncing on a small emerger when I’m fishing 6X. 

My knots of choice? Triple Surgeon’s down to 5X, four-turn Surgeon’s from 6X on down, with a Turle knot seated on the fly head to attach the fly (if I’m fishing a conventional down-eyed hook fly with a thread head – not for ring eyed hooks and bead-heads – for those I use a Palomar.) 

The double Surgeon’s knot (commonly pictured in knot charts – why?) is a weak knot but gains an additional 50% strength with that third turn – has to do with surface area. The Turle seats the monofilament on a thread head – where the leader wins the tensile strength battle. Seat monofilament against steel, particularly with any of the hangman’s noose-style knots that stretch and weaken as they tighten, and steel wins. 

Like my friend Rene, I live in a place where big trout on tough water can give my terminal gear an acid test. I either shape up, or lose fish – and the principles learned apply to less demanding situations, and can increase any angler’s chances for success and enjoyment. 

I hope this helps to that end. See the article Leader Logic on my website for more.

http://www.chuck-stranahan.com